About Me

Wednesday, 6 January 2016

Football Crackers

In the
football news it has been announced that the English Premiership clubs will be
given a lot more money next year for doing the same thing. There will be no organisational changes.

They will
still have eleven on the pitch, substitutes on the bench, the game will still
last 90 minutes to much the same rules.
In short the earnings do not relate to any increase in productivity,
improved lengths of service or requirement for efficiency.

One has to
allow that the clogging and fouling these days is much more skilled and
professional than it used to be, the players are far more emotional, which is
good viewing for some and it is expected that they will be a lot more sober
when they take the pitch.

All is not
entirely well however. The sponsors of
Manchester United, club located in a
northern city close to the site of a former engine shed from whence the club
derives, feel that the team ought to be more attacking like their predecessors
who won so many trophies.

There is a
general feeling that the style and the way the game is played typically these
days is less attacking, albeit not short of aggression in general violence and
disputes with the officials. It maybe
that the technical wonders now applied to analysis has produced an overload of
information with adverse effects.

One is the
measurement of pass rates, successful or not.
A player who makes a lot of passes that "succeed" may well
think that to go for an easy no risk pass that is a plus is preferred to
riskier forward passes into the hearts of the opponents defence more of which
will not "succeed" and be a minus.

My view is
that in general what has happened is that the scientific analysis now
available, the higher skills of players and the closely controlled training,
much improved organisation and fitter players now mean that defences are far
better and harder to beat.

So, as I gaze
between my feet at the box, sound off because music on, it is a lot less
interesting. Alpine skiing often has
good scenery, golf is green and nobody is bashing anybody, other sports have
their moments. If I want violence there
is always the rugby.

Is it possible
that the football bubble could burst?
There is a lot of bad news coming out of the international bodies, the
actual games are more often a bore than anything and we have had an overload of
choice for a little time now.

Could there soon
be too many competitions chasing too few viewers and the sponsors looking at
best value other than football?